Coffee on the cradle
Nisha
In My projects, Old love, Spaces Posted May 14, 2012
It’s been a while since I’ve been dabbling with my restoration projects. As always, I’ve been scrounging the internet for details, instructions and ideas. The carpenter, the painter and everyone else who works with me are hounded with questions on the how, why and what-ifs. My first project the big comfortable swing turned out so well that it is a such a stunner.It is only piece of furniture (rest are all cushions) in our ‘perennially work in progress’ living room. So armed with new found knowledge, a patient antique dealer who lets me spend hours in his warehouse even if I end up spending paltry sums, I found myself a very interesting project.
I’ve always coveted the cradle converted into a coffee-table from Karthik Vaidyanathan’s home. And since such readymade pieces are hard to come by and are also very very expensive, I knew I had to make one on my own. So as I rummaged through the antique warehouse, I found 2 interesting things. A broken cradle (only the 4 sides with all the railings rusted and in super bad condition) and a jaali, a lattice screen. Though the initial idea was to use the two separately, I decided to use them together.
The cradle was cleaned, rust scrubbed and removed and the cracks were filled. I got the jaali fitted on top, supported by planks on either sides. The whole process took so much time that I was highly inclined to abandon the project mid-way. Loads of research later, I came out with the final piece, all ready to be painted.
Going with the tile colors on the swing, I decided to use blue and green for the centrepiece. The result is such a fresh change from all the dark brown (walnut) furniture all over the place. I regret not having taken pictures of the original. The broken cradle strips and the jaali. Had I done that, the difference in the before and after pictures would have been unimaginably stark.
Now that’s a keeper, isn’t it ? A pat on the back for me and a lot more motivation to keep finding myself such challenges.
